GET LIT (ALL WEEKEND LONG): Win a copy of Aimee Bender's The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

The Web site for the award-winning alternative weekly, the Philadelphia City Paper.

options

GET LIT (ALL WEEKEND LONG): Win a copy of Aimee Bender's The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

POSTED: Saturday, June 19, 2010, 2:00 PM

Welcome to Book Quarterly Trivia Week! From now till June 23, we'll be inundating you with opportunities to win free copies of books from our Summer BQ. For the first time in BQTW's history, we've got copies of every single book we've reviewed, previewed and shouted out (even in Icepack!). So keep an eye out at 9 a.m., noon and 3 p.m. every day for plenty of chances to win.

Doubleday, 304 pp., $25.95, June 1

It's Saturday morning, and I'm sure none of you are awake yet. Lord knows I'm not. (Thank you, blog scheduler.) But when you do choose to rise, check out CP critic/Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction winner Katherine Hill's review of the new Aimee Bender novel, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake:

Aimee Bender may test the limits of quirk, but she's a treasure nonetheless: a modern fabulist drawn equally to magic and the realities of contemporary life. The heroine of her latest novel, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, can taste people's emotions in their food. Do they yearn for love? Are they always late? Rose can tell, a talent she discovers just before her birthday, when a slice of cake reveals that her beautiful, creative mom feels small, distant and hollow — all of which is too much for Rose. Bender's cute premise works because, as any recovering picky eater knows, the pure stuff (apples and carrots) and the processed stuff (chips and candy) are for many hypersensitive kids the only palatable foods. At the same time, we know that many a woman has swallowed her sadness to cook something up for her kids. The notion of food being tainted by grown-up pain is of course fantastical, but for the most part, Bender gets the details right, making her fable easy to believe.

To win a copy of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, answer the following trivia question:

What age is Rose turning when she begins tasting emotion?

E-mail me at carolyn.huckabay@citypaper.net for a chance to win, and be sure to put "Lemon Cake" in the subject line. Keep an eye on Critical Mass this weekend for more chances to win! [UPDATE, Mon., June 21, 10:10 a.m.]: Congrats to CritMass reader Ben, who correctly answered that the protagonist is turning 9 years old when she acquires her new talent.

Posted by Carolyn Huckabay @ 2:00 PM Permalink | Post a comment

Comments (0)

Q&A with SHARI SOLANIS: "The goal isn't pornography"
What we're trying to do this weekend
SEXY TIME Q&A: I've never had an orgasm during sex with a man — and I'm 30!
NOW SEE THIS: Transit cop arrests marijuana activist for alleged disorderly conduct.
Q&A with Tony Goldwyn: "Life is gray, and relationships are, too"
CONCERT REVIEW: Primus (3D & quadraphonic sound) @ The Tower 10/17
ICEPACK ILLUSTRATED: The Archbishop meets the Geator, the Mayor goes suit shopping, Le Bec Fin fin.
ICEPACK ILLUSTRATED: Indian fare rules, Dunder Mifflin lives on, Tom Jones is a god
Q&A with Goon’s Seann William Scott
SWIMMING HOLES: Some of our favorite places to get wet

About this blog

Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

Follow Critical Mass editors Patrick Rapa and Emily Guendelsberger on Twitter:

@mission2denmark | @emilygee

Search this blog:

Topics:

Blog archives:

May
April
March

February
January

Past Archives: